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Sunday, April 28, 2013

University Club of Albany Foundation Hosts Third Annual Pinkster Celebration

In the spring of 1811, the Albany Common Council banned Pinkster Day celebrations because of “rioting and drunkenness.” Two centuries later, in an effort to revive a tradition from Albany’s past, members of the University Club petitioned the Common Council to repeal the prohibition. The Pinkster ban was lifted on May 16, 2011.

The Club’s first Pinkster Celebration featured readings from four centuries of scholarly and popular publications documenting the people and places of New York’s capital city. In 2012, the University Club Foundation was delighted to welcome Albany’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning author, William Kennedy.

On Friday, June 7 the Club will honor Tom Clingan, Albany County Clerk at the 3rd annual Pinkster Celebration at the National Register-listed University Club of Albany.

Clingan has served as County Clerk for nearly a quarter century, and recently announced that he will not seek a seventh term. During his tenure, he led efforts to modernize records storage and access with state-of-the-art technology, and to protect and conserve historic documents dating back four centuries.

The featured speaker for the Pinkster Celebration will be community historian Stefan Bielinski. Bielinski is the director of the Colonial Albany Social History Project. The Colonial Albany Social History Project is a model community history program of the New York State Museum, an agency of the State Education Department through its Office of Cultural Education. It was launched in 1981 to understand pre-industrial community life by studying the contributions of the individuals who lived in the city of Albany during its formative years.

The Pinkster Celebration will feature a cocktail reception with light fare and open bar from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m., followed by a presentation by Bielinski titled An Evening with the People of Colonial Albany. When the reception wraps up at 8:00 p.m., Pinkster revelers are invited to head downstairs for an after-party in the Grille Room with vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Geo Doody, who serves up a versatile mix of classic rock, R&B, and Irish Pub standards. On the first Friday of each month, the University Club serves as a venue for 1st Friday, the downtown arts walk that showcases Albany’s thriving and lively art scene.

Honorary Committee Tickets are available for $100 per person, and corporate sponsorships are also available. Supporter tickets for the Pinkster Celebration are $50 per person. Reservations are required and may be made by calling the University Club at 518-463-1151 or online at www.uclubevents.blogspot.com .

Proceeds from the event benefit the University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc., a 501c3 corporation, and one need not be a member of the University Club to attend. The Foundation was formed to recognize and maintain the unique historic and architectural significance of the National Register-listed University Club building, its historic neighborhood and the city of Albany, where it has been located since its inception in 1901.

Support for educational programming presented by the University Club Foundation is provided by AT&T.

Friday, April 12, 2013

ALBANY, NY – April 12, 2013 – The University Club of Albany Foundation continues its efforts to promote the work of University Club members by hosting a luncheon and poetry reading on Wednesday, April 17 from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m.

Following a hot and cold buffet lunch, Albany poet and University Club member Sylvia Barnard will read from her book of poems, Trees, published in 2012 by Troy Book Makers. Sylvia taught the classics and Latin literature in Latin and in translation at the University at Albany for 40 years and has been active in the peace community since coming to Albany. She has been the featured poet at Poets in the Park, Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center, and at the Readings Against the End of the World hosted by Tom Nattell. She is also a regular face at many of the Albany area open mics and the Albany Word Fest.

The cost for the luncheon and reading is $20. The event is open to the public and one need not be a member of the University Club to attend. Reservations are required and may be made by calling the Club at 518-463-1151.

Earlier this year, historian, electrical engineer and University Club board member David Hochfelder discussed and signed his book The Telegraph in America, 1832–1920 (2012, The Johns Hopkins University Press) at a reception. In the autumn of 2012, University Club board member Tim Varney of Troy Web Consulting demonstrated the “Albany: Then & Now” smartphone app which he developed for Historic Albany Foundation.

This event is presented by the University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc., formed to recognize and maintain the historic and architectural significance of the University Club building, its historic neighborhood and the city of Albany, where it has been located since its inception in 1901. Support for educational programming presented by the University Club Foundation is provided by AT&T.

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The University Club Foundation, a 501c3 corporation, was formed to recognize and maintain the unique historic and architectural significance of the National Register-listed University Club building, its historic neighborhood and the city of Albany, where it has been located since its inception in 1901.